ABSTRACT
This chapter shows how to orient the client to mindfulness and why it is important. It describes the ‘mindfulness journey’ that takes the client from easy to more challenging practices. The chapter discusses the need for skills generalisation so that mindfulness becomes embedded into the client’s way of life. Mindfulness is the dialectical opposite of avoidance, involving willing acceptance of direct experience. To take the client on a mindfulness journey, we recommend starting with easily accessible, relatively pleasant, external foci, before moving onto internal experiences such as internal experiences and breath, and then onto thoughts and feelings. The aim is to take the client to a level of skill that makes them able to stay mindful in even the most challenging contexts. For example, an anxious client will often struggle with mindfulness of breath because she or he will be in the habit of monitoring for changes in breath signalling anxiety or panic.
